


A Lousy Bet

by Ailelie



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Assumptions, Bets, Everyone Thinks They're Together, Gen, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-21
Updated: 2014-01-21
Packaged: 2018-01-09 12:18:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1145898
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ailelie/pseuds/Ailelie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some words could sober Johnny up in an instant. After getting drafted by and playing with the Blackhawks, “bet” was one of those words. [Revised to remove Kane].</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Lousy Bet

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to accidentallymelted for the beta job. This was written before we learned that Khabibulin would be out for the season, to give some context for the timing.
> 
> [August 2015: While this fic originally featured Patrick Kane, I revised it to use Brent Seabrook instead. Comments prior to August 2015 refer to the original Kane version.]

Johnny, unexpectedly, was the one to figure the whole mess out. Of course, Brent was never going to find out how he'd gotten on the topic with Raanta--he would never lived it down if he did--but sometimes even Johnny got desperate.

 

Desperate, in this case, meant asking out their rookie goalie, who filling the net while their main goalies were both injured.

 

He had also been drinking. Not drunk, but yeah, nothing was going to make this story any better. Either way, Raanta had just stared at him and said, haltingly, “But, you and Seabs? The bet was a joke?”

 

Some words could sober Johnny up in an instant. After getting drafted by and playing with the Blackhawks, “bet” was one of those words.

 

"What bet?" he demanded, using what Brent called his ‘Captain voice’ and ‘murder eyes.’

 

Raanta paled and explained.

 

In the end, Johnny decided he was going to kill Burish. Sharp, too, but not until after the season and post-season were over.

 

He called Brent. “They think we’re in love with each other.”

 

"What?"

 

So he explained how Sharp and Burish had started the bet back before they’d won the Cup, how it had been a Blackhawks only thing until after the team was torn apart in 2010 and now how it was basically league wide and taken for granted that he and Brent were going to hook up and have each other’s babies--nevermind that Brent already had a perfectly wonderful wife and child.

 

Brent, naturally, did not react the right way at all.

 

He laughed. Loud enough, even, that Raanta jumped and how the hell did they have such a jittery goalie? They were going to have to work on that.

 

"And people believed them? We could totally screw with them."

 

Johnny pressed his lips together in a way that made Raanta’s eyes widen. “Speak for yourself. I’d actually like to get laid sometime before I retire.”

 

When Brent was still far too merry with the whole thing, Johnny added, “What's Dayna going to think?”

 

"She'd be egging us on and know it."

 

"And the rest of the league?" Johnny asked. "How long until this hits the press?"

 

"We'll sort it out. Don't be so serious."

 

Johnny hung up on him. Of course Brent find it hilarious. He was going to need a different tactic.

 

After he hung up, Raanta was still there. “So, you and Seabs?”

 

"Brent Seabrook is very straight and very in love with his wife."

 

"And you?"

 

Johnny either smiled or grimaced; he wasn’t entirely sure what his lips were doing. “I’m not.”

 

The more Johnny thought about it, the more steamed he got. Sure, he’d felt the slight tugs of attraction when he’d first lived with Brent and the guy was definitely hot on the ice. But that crush had faded even before Brent and Dayna got married. These days he liked Brent too much to _like_ him like that. But that bond was still there and Brent, when he wasn't finding dumb jokes stupidly funny, knew how to penetrate Johnny's intensity and get him to focus on what was in front of him, rather than everything he couldn't change. And, besides, Brent and Dayna were two of the few who knew about Johnny's sexuality.

 

Johnny had learned over the years that having people who knew he was gay and didn't care was  _extremely_ important for his mental well-being. And his hockey.

 

Which is why he was so pissed that his inability to get past the bet was affecting his line chemistry with Sharpy. After an especially painful practice, Sharpy cornered him in the parking lot and demanded to know what was going on. And, well, Johnny was frustrated and _frustrated_ , so he just exploded.

 

"What’s wrong is that I can’t pick up because you’ve convinced the entire frickin’ NHL that I’m stupid for Brent Seabrook.”

 

"You found out about that. Look, it wasn’t supposed to go that far."

 

Johnny crossed his arms. Once upon a time he’d had a plan for how he would come out to his teammates. It had involved dinner parties in discreet locations, not parking lots. But he was too angry to care about that now.

 

Johnny stepped closer, relishing the tension around Sharpy’s eyes. “Unlike Seabs, I actually like dick and would like to frickin’ sit on one sometime before the season ends. Fix it.”

 

Sharpy looked a little sick and a little scared and it all made Johnny feel rather better about the afternoon. He stepped back, nodded, and walked away.

 

Had he been a little less furious, he might have thought more clearly. He might have realized that telling Patrick Sharp he was hard up and then demanding he fix it was not the smartest thing he could have done.

 

In fact, Johnny really could not remember a time he’d ever done anything even half as dumb.

 


End file.
